Take note of which pattern pieces are not wool as they need to be needle turned and will be cut differently. The gingerbread girl’s dress and bow are needle turned. I waited to do her bow until I was ready to embellish her near the end. I needled turned her dress by pressing it around a heavy freezer paper pattern. I clipped two small clips in each side. I painted the seam allowance carefully with Best Press and then ironed it in place with my mini iron.
The white cotton pieces used for candy canes on the walls and top bar and around the door on House #1 and the triangle on the top of House #2 can be created with a bias tape maker or Karen Kay Buckley’s Perfect Stems. They are a super quick way to make any straight narrow bias strips for appliqué.
If you’ve never used them her you-tube tutorial is a great way to learn.
Prepare the following:
For the side walls & top bar of the left house, 1/4 inch wide strips: 3 in long, 4 in long, & 5 in long.
For around the door of the left house, 5/16 inch wide strip, 7 1/2 long. Be sure to cut this on on the bias so it will curve around the door. I cut all of them on the bias, but this one is especially important.
For the triangle top of the middle house, 3/8 inch wide strip: 16 long.
Here they are pinned in place ready to appliqué. Note that I do not actually pin the cotton, but instead using long thin pins, I pin on both sides to hold them in place.
For the triangle peak, I center the 16 inches on the bottom of the triangle.
Then carefully fold the corners so that the bottom is the full width and the pieces headed to the peak are behind. (If you can’t tell, in this pic, the top of the project is the bottom of the picture.)
For cutting…for the snow, place the patterns end to end (there is NO overlap). Use a ruler/yardstick to make sure the bottom edge is level.
For the center of the middle house, match the two pattern pieces (there is NO overlap) and center the bottom piece under the top piece.
For placement, use the placement guides that came with your pattern, and carefully appliqué in the order listed on the pattern. Above is the left house in progress.
There are 3 places I’ve used Trapunto on this project. What is trapunto? It is stuffing the appliquéd piece. I use it for emphasis, but mostly for times when an important piece overlaps several different layers of a project and thus becomes easily distorted. For example, the gingerbread people’s heads. In both cases they cover multiple layers: tree frosting, tree cookie, house, shutters, snow, etc. You need very little stuffing, just enough to raise the wool off the other layers. I usually appliqué most of the way around and then use my stiletto tool (or tweezers) to push a small bit of stuffing into the shape before finishing the appliqué. The silicone end of the stiletto tool is great for “grabbing” the stuffing.
Now we are ready to start embellishing!
